Elevator display system

ABSTRACT

An elevator display system includes elevator display monitors, each of which is positioned within an elevator to display video information. When in operation, each elevator display monitor has display areas for displaying information independently of each other. Each display monitor has a corresponding processing system. Each such processing system is configured to provide, to its associated elevator display monitor, information for each display area on that monitor. A remote server sends, to each of the processing systems, scheduling information for scheduling display of information.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.10/950,216, filed on Sep. 24, 2004 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,981,576, which isa continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/669,060, filed on Sep.23, 2003, now abandoned, which is a continuation of U.S. applicationSer. No. 09/885,532, filed on Jun. 21, 2001, and issued on Sep. 23, 2003as U.S. Pat. No. 6,622,826, which is a continuation of U.S. applicationSer. No. 09/457,867, filed on Dec. 10, 1999, and issued on Jun. 26, 2001as U.S. Pat. No. 6,250,428, which is a continuation of U.S. applicationSer. No. 09/154,633, filed on Sep. 17, 1998 and issued on Jul. 4, 2000as U.S. Pat. No. 6,082,500, which is a continuation of U.S. applicationSer. No. 08/834,876 filed on Apr. 10, 1997, and issued on Dec. 1, 1998as U.S. Pat. No. 5,844,181, which claims the benefit of the prioritydate of Canadian Patent No. 2,199,757, which was filed on Mar. 12, 1997.The contents of all the foregoing applications are incorporated hereinby reference.

FIELD OF INVENTION Background of the Invention

In most urban centers, exposure to information such as advertisinginformation and current news information has become an accepted part ofeveryday life. Apart from newspapers, magazines and television, massadvertising information is presented by way of billboards and morerecently pixelboards™, which are capable of displaying relatively simpleanimated pictures and textual information. However as with mostinformation and in particular with respect to advertising information,it is more effective to have both a captive audience and a well-targetedgroup in order to maximize the effectiveness and impact of theinformation conveyed. Most urban centers have a large number of majoroffice complexes. These office complexes include multi-storied buildingsserviced by elevators and large common areas providing a heretoforeunexploited environment for presentation of advertising and newsinformation. Display systems for these environments should amongstothers have the ability to target specific audiences with theinformation they present, respond quickly and easily to informationchanges, and provide a consistent high quality image and informationcontent.

To date, information display systems for elevators are capable ofpresenting at most the floor number, a floor directory of tenants and insome cases simple text based news information. For example, U.S. Pat.No. 4,995,479 to Fujiwara, describes a display apparatus for an elevatorin which information regarding the operating conditions of the elevatoris displayed along with “general” information, such as news and weather.A display unit is provided within the elevator cab and includes adisplay area for displaying text along side a picture display area fordisplaying predetermined graphic images. Predetermined pieces ofinformation are assembled and assigned a number indicative of a priorityfor that piece of information. The information is selected to bedisplayed according to the priorities assigned. Limitations of thissystem are that the messages are not easily updateable and informationis restricted to basic text and primitive graphic data. Furthermore, thesystem does not provide for an easily updateable real time informationdelivery and display system.

In U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,629 to Tsuji, et al., a display apparatus for anelevator is described, in which information concerning news, weather,etc., is displayed on a display screen located within the elevator cab.The information is selected to be displayed at predetermined times. Thedevice described in this patent allows for the information displayed tobe corrected (i.e. other information displayed) through inputs maderemotely from the elevator cab, for example, from a caretakers room or aportable computer. Once again this patent discloses a simple scrollingmessage display system, which although updateable via a remote computer,requires extensive user intervention to constantly update the displayedmessages. Furthermore, the display of the information is dependent tosome extent on the operational parameters of the elevator.

In U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,897 to Matsumoto, et al., an elevator displaysystem is disclosed in which the operational information of theelevator, in particular a floor indicator, is superimposed on abackground image on a display screen. The background image is describedas being a plurality of still pictures assigned to the different floorsat which the elevator stops or different kinds of animations assigned tothe different floors. Once again, this patent does not disclose a methodof simultaneously altering the information in a series of elevatorsindependent of a particular elevator operational state.

Thus, based on the current state of the art regarding elevator and foyerdisplay systems, there is a need for a system for displaying real timeinformation content targeted to a specific audience and which providesthat the information is centrally coordinated and disseminated.Furthermore, currently available systems do not provide a system that iscompletely site addressable with the potential for a building, includingmultiple elevator banks within a building, to have its own unique dailyprogram. Furthermore, there is a need for a system that is capable ofcommunicating on a daily basis new information relevant to tenants orusers of the building and which is capable of replacing the relativelyineffective paper and poster notification methods currently in use alongwith the associated manpower costs. Furthermore there is a need for asystem that makes use of display technology that offers highly legible,easily understandable stills, animated graphics, pictures and videos.

There is also a need for a display system that is both flexible that canbe installed in existing elevator banks and can provide an advertiserimpact close to the point of purchase and can effectively target anextremely attractive market place and which does not necessarily requireextensive government regulatory approval.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention seeks to provide in an information display system aninformation display apparatus and a method for easily updating displaysin the system such that information composed at a centralized locationmay be easily presented at the displays.

It is an object of the present invention to provide general informationdisplay units which may be located in elevator cabs and waiting areas.

A further object of the invention is to facilitate remote control andautomated information updates, simultaneously, to a number of displayunits located in elevator cabs and waiting areas.

A further object of the invention is to provide time sensitiveinformation to the display units, and to provide such informationindependent of elevator operation.

A further object of the invention is to provide an information andadvertising presentation in a relatively easily understandable mannerutilizing a relatively high-resolution display capable of displayingamongst others, picture quality advertising and information graphics andall manner of information display including still images, 2-D and 3-Dcomputer animations and full motion video and which may be easilyintegrated into existing elevator cabs and waiting areas.

In accordance with this invention there is provided a device fordisplaying information in at least one elevator cab, the devicecomprising:

a display means including a display screen located in each elevator cabsaid display adapted to receive and display information on said screen;

a building server located in the building in which each elevator cab islocated, the building server being adapted to communicate information toeach display means; and

a central server remotely located from the building servers,

wherein the information to be displayed is transmitted from the centralserver to the building servers and then to the display means.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other advantages o the present invention will become moreapparent from the following discussion of preferred embodiments of theinvention and which are described by way of example only with referenceto the accompanying drawings in which like elements have been assignedlike numerals and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a network configuration of aninformation display system according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 shows a network configuration for a specific aspect of thegeneral network configuration;

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of a display unit;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the information flow from a centralcontrol to a display;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the operation including updated andcontrol of the display;

FIG. 6 shows a front view of an information display monitor;

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram showing the update of advertising informationto the display; and

FIG. 8 is a further flow diagram showing the update of information tothe display.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIG. 1, a schematic network architecture is shown generallyby numeral 100. The network includes a centralized control center orsystem server 110 which communicates via suitable communication links112, with city control center servers 114. Each city may include one ormore servers 114, however each server 114 has associated, therewith, anumber of buildings in a given city. The group of buildings serviced bythe city server 114 is identified by reference numeral 116. Although asingle city server 114 is shown per city group, this may include morethan one city server within a given city.

The city servers 114 then communicate in turn with individual buildingswithin its group 116 via communication links, for example via atelephone line, a wireless communication, infrared or any suitablecommunication link. Within each building, for convenience is located afurther server denoted a building server 120 which is then responsiblefor communicating with the individual elevator banks within thebuilding. A display unit 210 is located within each elevator bank fordisplaying the information communicated thereto. In a further embodimentof the invention, the central server may be configured to communicatedirectly with the building servers and not necessarily via the cityservers. For clarity, buildings may include a group of buildings, suchas for example; an office tower cluster comprising several distinctoffice towers.

The architecture of the network within a building is shown in greaterdetail with reference to FIG. 2. Referring to FIG. 2, an office complex,includes one or more buildings 200. The buildings 200 are serviced byone or more elevator cabs 210. Within each elevator cab is located adisplay means 212 which is a self contained unit including a flat screendisplay 310, typically a liquid crystal display, a microprocessor 312, amass storage device 314, a memory (RAM) 315 and a power supply 316 asshown in FIG. 3. The building server 220 is connected to each displaymeans 212 within each elevator cab via a cable 230 which may be includedwithin the bundle of cables already provided to the elevator cab. In afurther embodiment, however, the display and the building may includewireless communication devices. As it is anticipated the present systemwill be retrofitted into existing elevators, the use of a wirelesscommunication link between the display and the building server isdesirable as the existing wiring to the elevator may be difficult toaccess. Furthermore, by providing a display which is separate to theexisting elevator control system obviates the need to obtainauthorization from elevator service companies to perform maintenance orupdates on the information display system.

By providing individual servers 220 within a building which areindividually and uniquely addressable allows in addition to commoninformation to be received by all other buildings, but the ability toadd additional individualized information pertaining to a specificbuilding to the general information content. For example, a buildinglandlord might include with the regular programming information,information on interruptions due to maintenance, emergency procedures,vacancies, etc. Also, with the proliferation of shops within buildingcomplexes, advertising information for these businesses may also beeasily included with the building specific information. However, it maybe seen that because the buildings are serviced by centralized cityserver 114, the bulk of the information displayed is synchronized witheach building and the building specific information will lot interruptthe information transmitted to other buildings within the network, whilestill maintaining centralized control and delivery of generalizedinformation to the other elevator display units within the city.Furthermore, although the system is capable of displaying informationwithout interfering with the elevator control system, floor numbers andfloor specific tenant information may also be displayed on the screens.This information may be derived from the elevator control system withoutinterfering with the display of advertising or other news informationwhich is displayed simultaneously in the elevator cabs.

In FIG. 3, a detailed block diagram of the display device is showngenerally by numeral 300. The display device includes an electroniccommunication means 318 such as an Ethernet card or other suitablenetwork protocol card. The communication means 318 may also support RF,or infrared signals. The display also includes a computer 312, memory315, mass storage device 314 (such as a hard disk drive) and a suitablepower supply 316. A display screen 310 is also provided for displayingrelevant information, most typically this is a color liquid crystaldisplay as used for example in laptops. The display unit components areencased in a suitable housing (not shown) which may be customized to beesthetically integrated with the elevator cab interior.

In a further embodiment of the invention, information to be displayed onthe display screen is transmitted to the building servers 220 and thentransmitted in real time according to a schedule stored on the buildingservers 220 to the displays. This embodiment provides for a relativelyless expensive display within each elevator cab as it is not requiredthat the displays include a processor or storage device. Furthermore, insome instances where space in a elevator cab is at a premium it is moreadvantageous to implement this embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 4, the flow of information from the centralizedcontrol center 110 to the individual displays within the elevator cab isshown generally by numeral 400. The control center referred topreviously in FIG. 4 includes a system server computer 410 which gathersinformation pages for transmission to the various building servers.These information pages may include amongst other, traffic reports,subway or train schedule updates, news clippings such as business andfinancial news, stock market updates, sports, weather and any otherinformation of relevance to all or specific cities. In addition, theinformation may include building updates which is information specificto a specific building or groups of buildings within a city or acrosscities.

For example, in North America, it is not unusual for a single realestate company to own various office complexes in different cities.Should it be desired that building information is to be provided to alltheir buildings, this information may be compiled at the system serversite and appended to the existing general information. Because allbuilding servers are individually addressable from the system server,the specific information destined for the requisite buildings may becommunicated to their respective displays without effecting theinformation being displayed in other buildings. Once delivered to thebuilding server, the information is relayed to the appropriate displaysvia the internal communication links of the building that as mentionedearlier may include wired, wireless or infrared links. In this manner, adisplay unit in any location can be reached from a central control pointand information provided thereto in a consistent and timely manner.Furthermore, since the displays are individually addressable,advertising, information and scheduling updates are addressed tospecific displays only when and where appropriate.

Once the relevant information has been communicated to the appropriatedisplay apparatus in the elevator cabs, the information is processed bythe computer within the display apparatus and then forwarded to thedisplay screen. Referring to FIG. 6, the display screen may be dividedinto two general areas, namely an information display area and anadvertisement display area. Thus, both types of information may besimultaneously displayed. A different number of display areas within agiven screen may also be implemented.

Referring to FIG. 5, information to be displayed on the screen istransmitted to the display apparatus as described earlier along with abroadcast schedule. The broadcast schedule determines when the nextinformation or advertisement information is to be displayed and in whatsequence they are is to be displayed. As may be seen in FIG. 8, theprocessor within the display apparatus checks the broadcast schedule andbased thereon, directs the appropriate information from the mass storagedevice to the display screen which then displays the information in theappropriate area of the screen. While the appropriate information isbeing displayed on the screen, the processor performs a constant checkof the date and time and then performs a check for any changes in thebroadcast schedule. Changes in the broadcast schedule may includechanges in content of information to be displayed or times at which theinformation is to be displayed or both. If there has been a change inany of the information content or the scheduled times of display of theinformation, the appropriate information is loaded as per the revisedschedule and displayed on the screen with reference to the sequence inFIG. 5.

A similar check for changes in the content and time sequence display ofthe advertising information is performed as indicated in FIG. 7. Thus,it may be seen that concurrent to the display of current advertising andcurrent information, the display apparatus checks for updates to theadvertising or the information content and schedule and loads the nextappropriate advertising or information content for display. When thecurrently displayed advertisement or general information content hascompleted displaying the next scheduled advertisement or information isthus displayed. This sequence of events thus provides for seamlesschange of information and advertising.

Further, there can be an unlimited number of information screensscheduled for display which may be further displayed in any combinationand for any predetermined length of time. The information displayed mayinclude high quality computer generated graphics or picture qualitystatic images displayed for a predetermined period of time, videos,animations or any combination of information. Furthermore, there is alsoprovided in an alternative embodiment the facility for including soundwith the images.

In the above embodiment, the information to be displayed on the screensis uploaded from the building s server computer to the individualdisplay units in the elevator cab where the information is thenprocessed according to the schedule included with the information. Inanother embodiment, the information may be fed in real time from thebuilding server to the display unit and where the display apparatus doesnot store any significant amount of information thereon. Furthermore,the display apparatus may also provide for the return of diagnostic ormaintenance information, back to the server in order that the displayunit may be monitored remotely without the need for maintenancepersonnel intervention, thus further reducing the overall cost of thesystem. In a still further embodiment, the building server may receiveinformation for display not only from the central server, but otherinformation sources such as CNN, sports or direct internet access.

Thus it may be seen that the information display system of the subjectinvention may be implemented in various forms. Although the embodimentsare shown with reference to specific examples, other modifications maybe possible. For example, an embodiment of the present invention mayequally well be utilized in subway cars, hospitals, trains or othersimilar places. The individual buildings may also include severalservers. These and other modifications to the variations upon thepreferred embodiments are provided for by the present invention, thescope of which is limited only by the following claims.

1. An elevator display system comprising: a plurality of elevatordisplay monitors, each of which is positioned within an elevator todisplay video information, each elevator display monitor, when inoperation, having at least a first display area for displayingfirst-information and a second display area for displayingsecond-information independently of displaying said first-information; aplurality of processing systems, each of which is associated with anelevator display monitor, each processing system being configured toprovide, to an elevator display monitor, first-information for displayin the first display area and second-information for display in thesecond display area concurrently with the display of thefirst-information; and a remote server for sending, to each of theprocessing systems, scheduling information for scheduling display of thefirst and second-information.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein theprocessing systems are disposed outside of the elevator.
 3. The systemof claim 1, wherein each of the processing systems is associated with aplurality of elevator display monitors.
 4. The system of claim 1,wherein the remote server is configured to generate schedulinginformation associated with the first and second-information.
 5. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the remote server comprises: a remote serverdatabase for storing the first-information related data, and thesecond-information related data; and a scheduling module that retrievesthe data from the remote server database and generates the schedulinginformation at least in part on the basis thereof.
 6. The system ofclaim 5, wherein the first-information related data and thesecond-information related data include addresses leading to the firstand second-information.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the remoteserver is configured to communicate with the processing systems via theinternet and wherein, at each processing system, a schedulinginformation parser generates a local playlist from the schedulinginformation retrieved from the remote server.
 8. The system of claim 1,wherein each processing system comprises a network interface module forreceiving the first and second-information.
 9. The system of claim 1,wherein each processing system comprises a display-generator interfacefor assembling the first and second-information into a video signalcompliant with the elevator display monitor associated with thatprocessing system.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein thedisplay-generator interface is configured to assemble the first andsecond-information into a computer-readable file.
 11. The system ofclaim 9, wherein the display-generator interface is configured toassemble the first and second-information into an HTML file.
 12. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein each of the processing systems is configuredto retrieve the first and second-information specified by the HTML file.13. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the processing systems isconfigured to directly retrieve the first-information from sources otherthan the remote server.
 14. The system of claim 1, wherein theprocessing systems are located in different buildings.
 15. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the remote server is configured to generate schedulinginformation associated with the first and second-information.
 16. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the remote server comprises a server databasefor storing first-information related data, and second-informationrelated data; and a scheduling module that retrieves data from theserver database and generates the scheduling information at least inpart on the basis thereof.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein thefirst-information related data and the second-information related datainclude addresses from which the first and second-information,respectively, can be retrieved over the data communication path.
 18. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the remote server communicates with theprocessing systems via a network, and wherein each of the processingsystems comprises a scheduling information parser for generating a localplaylist from the scheduling information retrieved from the remoteserver.
 19. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the processingsystems is configured to request updates of the first andsecond-information from the remote server.
 20. The system of claim 1,wherein each of the processing systems is configured to transmitinformation to the remote server.
 21. The system of claim 1, whereineach of the processing systems is configured to transmit, to the remoteserver, information related to maintenance of the elevator display unitassociated with that processing system.
 22. The system of claim 1,wherein each of the processing systems is configured to transmit, to theremote sever, information related to content of the first andsecond-information.
 23. A method of displaying information on a displaymonitor within an elevator, the method comprising: providing, to aprocessing system associated with the elevator, scheduling informationassociated with first-information and second-information, thesecond-information including advertising information; and generating, atleast in part on the basis of the scheduling information, a display forviewing at the display monitor, the display including a first displayarea for displaying the first-information and a second display area fordisplaying the second-information.
 24. The method of claim 23, whereinproviding scheduling information comprises transmitting the schedulinginformation from a remote source.
 25. The method of claim 23, whereingenerating a display comprises retrieving the first-information and thesecond-information on the basis of the scheduling information.
 26. Themethod of claim 24, further comprising providing the remote source witha central server database for storing first-information related data,and second-information related data; and a scheduling module forretrieving the first-information related data and the second-informationrelated data from the database; and generating the schedulinginformation at least in part on the basis of the first-informationrelated data and the second-information related data.
 27. The method ofclaim 26, further comprising including, within the first-informationrelated data and the second-information related data, data indicative oflocations for retrieving the first and second-information over the datacommunication path.
 28. The method of claim 23, wherein generating thedisplay includes selecting from one of a plurality of formats fordisplaying the first-information and the second-information.
 29. Themethod of claim 23, wherein generating the display includes assemblingthe first and second-information into a display format compliant withthe elevator display units.
 30. The method of claim 23, furthercomprising causing the display to be provided to the display monitor.31. The method of claim 24, wherein transmitting the schedulinginformation from a remote source comprises transmitting from a remoteserver located in a building that is separate from a building thatincludes the elevator.
 32. The method of claim 23, further comprisinggenerating the scheduling information associated with the first andsecond-information.
 33. The method of claim 31, further comprisingparsing scheduling information to generate a playlist for the processingsystem associated with the elevator.
 34. The method of claim 23, furthercomprising requesting an update of the first and second-information. 35.The method of claim 24, further comprising causing information to betransmitted from the processing system associated with the elevator tothe remote source.
 36. The method of claim 24, further comprisinggenerating diagnostic information related to maintenance of the elevatordisplay unit, and causing the diagnostic information to be transmittedto the remote source.